Earlier this year, I launched Grabb, a mobile app that allows people to pre-order and pre-pay for meals — skip the line to save time.

It’s been a steep learning curve, from registering Grabb as a business in the Queen’s University library to attracting our first 1,000 users, and I’ve learned a few lessons about launching a business. Based on my experience thus far, here are five important things to consider:

Finance through resources available to you Regardless of the type of business you’re starting, everyone needs capital, even if it’s just enough to pay for incorporation documents and a domain name.

I studied finance at university so was able to apply what I learned to financing my own company. Grabb’s seed funding was a result of networking and meeting the right people. Many founders think they should keep their idea quiet, but opportunity actually arises when you reach out to the right people to share ideas and get feedback.

Luckily for startups, there’s a wealth of resources to help small businesses get off the ground. There are several organizations that support and provide funding such as Futurpreneur, a national non-profit geared to providing support for aspiring business owners aged 18 to 39, Ontario Centres of Excellence, which invests in early-stage projects, and a number of startup accelerators including Ryerson DMZ, Highline, and Jolt. These resources offer a combination of funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities to help bring your business idea to life.

CNW Group/Grabb Mobile Inc.

Learn all the ins and outs I began Grabb with a concept and business strategy but since I didn’t exactly have the coding skills of Mark Zuckerberg, I partnered with a company to spearhead the development of the app. But, I knew it was imperative to learn how to code.

Not knowing how to write a single line of code, a close friend who was helping me with Grabb told me about a hackathon with a prize of $10,000. We sat down at our computer and Googled “learn how to code for Android.” Nine days, 80 cups of coffee, and 200 YouTube tutorials later, we walked into the hackathon and built an app from scratch.

Taking the time to understand the multiple layers of your business and industry — consumer, product, and process — will help you make more educated decisions.

Accept that something may go wrong, and be prepared to iterate As our team was gearing up for beta launch, it spent thousands of hours testing the platform, and hardware and software. Each time we tested the app, it worked flawlessly. We were extremely excited to take the app live and anticipated smooth sailing during our closed beta.

Then something went wrong. One piece of hardware used wasn’t as reliable in the live environment so we had to take the app down to make changes. Once we understood how the app functioned in closed beta, it was easy to identify areas of weakness and opportunities to improve. Thankfully, after two weeks of hard work (and a few all-nighters) the app was working perfectly and we were ready to roll it out again.

There are always going to be bugs or complications regardless of how much you prepare, so be ready to iterate on the go, ask people to be patient when testing your product.

Don’t just make a sale, build relationships When I got my first three clients, I used their feedback to refine the app. Not only did we develop a platform that streamlined perfectly into their operations and had the necessary bells and whistles, but we also built great relationships in the process. We went for meals, Jays games and BBQs together.

Those clients came after countless cold calls, emails, and walk-ins, but our next clients were referrals. Although a referral may seem like random act of kindness or a lucky break it’s usually a result of building quality relationships.

Know that you can’t do everything and find people who have complementary skills to fill the gaps A few weeks into beta phase, I was juggling a handful of responsibilities. From coding, design, setup with new restaurants, and follow-ups with existing merchants, my workload really piled up. Some things even began to slip. After a few weeks of playing Superman, I decided it was time to expand my team.

We’re now a team of six and have established more than 30 restaurant partnerships in Toronto’s Queen Street West, King Street West, and financial districts. Learning to delegate and let go of every little task has made my job easier and allowed me to focus on forming future partnerships across Canada.

Kabir Daswani is founder and CEO ofGrabb Mobile Inc., a Toronto-based technology startup in the mobile marketing and commerce space. Daswani developedGrabb, a mobile app that allows users to pre-order and pre-pay for meals, while studying at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. Grabb is available for download in theApp Store,Google Playstore, and online at www.grabb.ca/download.

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